Without even realizing it we could be measuring ourselves incorrectly.
Some of us have a vision for our lives. Usually that vision comes true. The self-fulfilling prophecy.
Others don’t necessarily have a vision. They don’t think about it. They know that it’s good to keep doing things so they keep doing things without giving it much through. That can lead down the right or wrong path.
I was watching a movie a few months ago and a criminal said a line that went something like, “You have to be careful what you become skilled at…”.
That’s really true. It’s not something we often think about. It’s difficult to change courses when you become good and really good at something.
The same is true with measuring success. Sometimes we fall into traps with the way we measure it. We fall back to the common things like money, employees, employer names and all kinds of common measurements.
We use common measurements because they’re easy to communicate to others. Friends, family, people we meet at networking events. Things like that. It’s easy to say you’re an accountant for a big firm. It’s not easy to say you’re a business owner. That’s more vague. It’s easy to say you own a grocery store. It’s not easy to say that you own a ghost blogging company.
Success is very much subjective. The challenge with it is that it’s difficult to communicate to others. It’s difficult to compare what you’re doing to what others are doing. But it’s important to take control of how you measure success.
There is no right or wrong answer unless the way you’re measuring success is wrong for you.
Take time to understand what you value in life. Figure out what your priorities are for today and for the future. Look at your history to see what has mattered most to you. Look for people that you have and do admire and see what they have done that you admire.
That can lead you to understanding how you measure success. It might be money that defines your success. That’s not right or wrong. It might be having a certain number of employees for a company you own. It might be making a middle income salary, but having time for family and hobbies.
The measurement is different for everybody. The trap is understanding yourself and what is best for you. Because if you follow the wrong measurement, someone else’s measurement, you will likely end up disappointed in what you’re doing and where you’re going in life.